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People I know high up in Vodafone are confident that OFFCOM will approve the take over within the next week, but they will have to end the MBNL agreement with 3. As 3 have moved a good few of their sites into T-mobiles cabins and Vodafone will swap T-mobiles 3G network out to Ericsson equipment, 3 will have big problems.

Vodafone will have around 45% of the UK market and this will probably lead to a 20% increase in bills and as such greater revenue for government, so I don't expect the deal to be blocked.

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Humph -- will this mean significant improvements in T's coverage / signal? Or will we be stuck with the current tripe which has major difficulties with walls etc?

Here's hoping...

The networks will be intergrated, they will probably lose some sites, but you will get coverage from the nearest T-mobile or Vodafone site. It may take time but it will all become one network. T-mobile will be no more.

You will have either 900Mhz or 1800Mhz coverage and proSPAMly both, 900 will inprove indoor coverage. 3G will be the same, but the new combined Vodafone will have 3 whole frequencies and a smaller chunk. In all but large cities, Vodafone are only using one frequency, so with existing 3G equipment they could migrate T-mobiles 3G into there existing infrastructure, long term to use all three frequencies, they would need to fit new equipment. They could do the same with 2G.

If it goes through you should see an improvement, but you will be a Vodafone customer, they won't keep the T-mobile brand.

Edited July 19, 2009 by humph12345

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Hope the same happens to t-mobile holland as that has one of the worst networks here , as for merging vodafone would keep the masts where thier own coverage is poor and t-mobiles coverage is better so in a way you will gain better coverage , it should be better coverage wise , but here in holland t-mobile bought orange and then sold all the masts to kpn and vodafone as they needed the money to cover the huge losses, this was due to orange customers not joining t-mobile as they had hoped , vodafone is huge and can afford the costs , least one thing the new t-mobile uk helpdesk in india will be shut down and you will get a real english person on the line to complain to ;) as for 3 they will be ok as vodafone will find that income usefull as 3 will use the old t-mobile freq , but as for it not going through it will if its true due to the current problems for companies , t-mobile took over orange without a problem and became the second network in holland till people left and joined vodafone

I found this today (originally posted to lawdit reading room on 22 July)

<h1 class="articleh1"></h1>Vodafone and T-Mobile

By Umar Chaudhry

A possible takeover of T-Mobile by Vodafone, has created considerable comment. Vodafone has a 25% share of the UK market, behind O2. T-Mobile, owned byDeutsche Telekom, has a 15% share.

There is an argument that spectrum ownership is vital in understanding why Vodafone would be interested in purchasing T-Mobile.

In February, Vodafone and Hutchison Whampoa, which owns mobile operator 3 in the UK, announced plans to merge their Australian mobile phone businesses.

All modern GSM phones freely support 900 and 1800MHz: so the consequence of a merger could equally be T-Mobile customers switching to 900MHz rather than Vodafone users returning to 1800MHz

The annual AIP payment that Ofcom is going to demand for 900MHz would put Vodafone off as they could get 800MHz (or lower) spectrum for a simple and easy one-off payment. 1800MHz is a positive feature on T-Mobile's account, while 900MHz is about to become an operational expenditure of the sort despised by big companies.

Also, while existing licences for 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2.1GHz are all technology specific, Ofcom has made it clear that all such restrictions will vanish over time.

It's more straightforward to construct a network operating at 900MHz, however T-Mobile has already built a countrywide 1800MHz network. Vodafone could even hold on to a small slice of 900MHz to fill the really rural areas, if necessary.

A Vodafone/T-Mobile combination would certainly disturb the competitive marketplace, and possibly prompt further consolidation. Ofcom's most recent report predicts that by 2022 there will only be two operators left in the UK.

Umar Chaudhry is a legal assistant to Izaz Ali ([email protected]) Izaz is a commercial lawyer who specialises in information technology law and intellectual property law with an emphasis on IT, escrow, online and off-line contracts, and the buying and selling of online businesses.

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I guess if Ofcom are likely to be happy, will the monopolies commission get involved? If not, I wish they'd get on with it... I'm looking forward to that 900MHz freq becoming available :)

Well -- having looked at my Touch HD, I guess I should say 800 / 850 MHz for UMTS. It looks like the 900MHz is GSM only?

Whichever way up, I just want a decent data signal inside a building!

The frequency bands are what this is all about. Ofcom have stated that the use of each ban will not be fixed in the future. So Vodafone could use 900Mhz for UMTS or for that matter 1800Mhz. The most likely is that they will use 1800Mhz as a GSM network and then use 1800Mhz and 2100Mhz for 3g.

On a side note, T-mobile are installing quite a few new 3g sites in the north and midlands.